Nirankari Amritsar Clash (13 Sikh Shaheeds)

Who: The Sant Nirankari Mission under Baba Gurbachan Singh, holding a Baisakhi convention in Amritsar; and Sikhs of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, led by Bhai Fauja Singh, and the Damdami Taksal, who marched to protest at it. The Tribune names Sant Kartar Singh of the Damdami Taksal as the leader of the campaign against the Nirankaris.

What: On 28 November 1973 the SGPC passed a resolution warning Sikhs of the Nirankari chief's "tactics", which The Tribune calls the first organised intervention by the Sikhs. Ramachandra Guha writes that after Bhindranwale preached an angry sermon near the Golden Temple, a crowd of Sikhs confronted the convention.

The clash took place on 13 April 1978. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says 13 Sikhs were killed on the spot and 78 wounded. ThePrint says Fauja Singh was killed by Gurbachan Singh's guard, that 12 more Sikhs and some Nirankaris died, and that two onlookers also died. The Tribune says at least 17 died, most of them Sikhs, and Guha says fifteen. The totals differ because the sources count the Sikh, Nirankari and bystander dead differently.

The Nirankaris accused were 64 in the Encyclopaedia's count and "more than 60" in ThePrint's, and Gurbachan Singh was among them. The trial was held at Karnal in Haryana. On 4 January 1980, two days before the Lok Sabha poll, the sessions judge set all of them free; ThePrint says the court ruled they had acted in self-defence.

Where: Amritsar, at the Nirankari convention.

Why it mattered: A few months after the clash the Akal Takht issued a hukamnama telling Sikhs to sever ties with the Nirankaris. The release of the accused in January 1980 was followed on 24 April 1980 by the killing of Baba Gurbachan Singh in Delhi, and the Nirankaris then virtually withdrew from Punjab (The Tribune).